“In the meantime, the Daily Kos can fucking blow me.”

So It Turns Out Black Activists Were Tricked By Putin Into Thinking There’s A Problem. *Cough*

The Daily Kos, which these days seems to spend most of its energy stumping for the new cold war and promoting blog pieces with titles like “Putin crony Jill Stein”, has got some fantastic news for black activists all over America. You know how you guys have been laboring under the impression that you live in a country built upon slavery and kleptocratic Jim Crow laws, resulting in institutional racism and oppressive generational poverty which plague you to this day?

Well, it turns out you imagined the whole thing: you were actually tricked into thinking those thoughts by Vladimir Putin in order to influence the 2016 election. Turns out your activism hasn’t been needed after all! Yay!

Don’t worry though: the Daily Kos hastens to inform us that it wasn’t your fault. You organized events protesting police brutality and systemic racism on behalf of the Kremlin “unknowingly”.

*

These manipulations wouldn’t be used if they weren’t expected to work. It’s up to us to keep pointing them out as they come up, but as we discussed last time, eventually we’re going to have to evolve to a point where we become immune to oligarchic propaganda. In the meantime, the Daily Kos can fucking blow me.

Comments

@MrWebster
old poop chute along with Salon about a year and a half ago. When they decided to back the Money Grubbing Warmongers Party.

This attack on black activists was bound to happen eventually. It started last year with Hillary and her claim that Putin was behind anti-fracking protests. The NYTimes published a straight piece about last year June or so that accused Putin of instigating anti-TPP opinions. It was clear from previous versions of McCarthyism that Russia would used to squash and marginalize any sort of dissent against the establishment. Putin was recently accused of being behind the Catalonia independence movement.

So basically white democrats are throwing black activists under the bus to further the Russia-gate narrative. Getting Trump through Russia accusations is more important than racial issues effecting their most loyal base.

This theme is reaching beyond TOP. It is reaching main stream credibility through articles like this in the Atlantic.

Also, found this. An article about a State department memo that listed out the Soviet propaganda they were spewing about race in 1963. Looking at what State thought was "propaganda" would hardly be questioned as untrue by current beliefs.

The democrats will end up shooting themselves in the foot with their largest most loyal base if they keep this shit up. Black establishment leadership will not be able to stem the resentment this will cause with younger black activists.

(Since you and others here know more than I do in this area, much of this is intended more to cover some of the facts for any drive-by readers who might not be aware of the background - or to piss off any propagandists checking in - even though this thread will undoubtedly have fallen out of sight and mind by the time I've posted it... could barely even type much of yesterday, lol.)

Well, they've been accusing everyone not toeing their extremely crooked Party lines and/or not supporting Hillary in all of her myriad aspics of being all things to all people while they're actually there to be conned/milked, (assuming, jelly-like, varying forms depending upon whether votes [public - sour grape-shape] or money [private - fatty pork-malleable ooze] are being demanded,) of being 'Putin-puppets'. (Or possibly, based in claims regarding Facebook ads, Putin-puppies)

This is evidently either because wealthy psychopaths cannot imagine normal humans, never mind the Non-Billionaire Poors, as being real, or of having brain processes capable of accumulating information and reaching decisions based on a reasoned analysis of known facts and probabilities, and therefore must be controlled and run entirely by one of Those Who Matter,

(since the Clinton and related corporate factions thinks about everything in relation to Big Money, and that therefore money is not only the only speech that matters but the only thought that matters, as well,)

or because she, her billionaire and corporate interest paymasters and PR people are stuck somewhere in the past century, partly in their kindergarten name-calling years, partly wishing for the lucrative days of the Cold War and to revel in the McCarthism of their relative youth and keep rotating the same old strategies that worked before, even if these were only working up until before they were abandoned as the vicious, if ludicrous, lunacy they were and are, and believe that they'll work again, if they only repeat them enough. And the Big Lie does unfortunately work, on the already and heavily propagandized, as people tend to 'check themselves' against what are perceived as societal 'norms'...

Actually, I believe it to encompass both, psychopaths being like that, although we also know that this Russian!!! nonsense was using a strategy developed by the Clinton campaign team*, to also act as an excuse - such strategies often being multi-purpose - for attacking yet another country and killing their people to destroy/steal their stuff, for fun and profit, at American taxpayer and reputation expense, as usual. Not to mention the lives of some of those Disposables, often in the military in the first place because higher education is made otherwise unaffordable and there are few and shrinking numbers of living-wage jobs in America, thanks to Corporate Party policies.

Therefore we also know that they're lying both in the interest of yet another planned military mugging and really big home invasion for squatting in the whole country while killing/dispossessing the residents and milking its resources and in denying the myriad solid reasons for the American people to speak out not only against them and their various and myriad crimes at home as well as abroad, but the societal results of such crimes.

As with the Dept. of Justice abetting routine citizen murder-by-police by allowing cops to get away with citizen murder - police possibly only individually even keeping track of the appalling numbers of these murders in notches perhaps carved onto their own bedposts - while permitting such as Israel anti-terrorist tactics to be taught domestic police, to use against the American public.

The only war zone in America consists of a corporate/billionaire war on the American people, enacted through their own public service at all levels.

When even the lives of their country's own non-super-wealthy citizens are so cheap in further enriching and empowering the relative few Psychopaths and Parasites That be, how are the people to be conned into believing that their village is being destroyed and their possessions and rights stolen to 'keep them safe' without 'total information control' being exerted over them?

How sick does anyone have to be to think that people shouldn't demand that the routine police murder of unarmed citizens stops, with murderers and those enabling/encouraging them held accountable? Never mind to try to propagandize next-in-line-others into accepting this murderous and self-serving pathology of the relative few claiming open season on Non-Billionaire Americans they're further impoverishing, poisoning and dispossessing as rapidly as they can, in the process of looting the entire Earth?

Or to claim that it would be 'an act of war' for another country's government (a fossil-fuel dependent economy run by an initially American-electoral-interference-converted crony-capitalist government still being described as 'scary Commie!!!' because they have universal health-care and pensions that TPTB don't want Americans thinking about? or because they're using a play-book for a strategy that's a half-century old and out-of-date?) to run public service ads encouraging the people to be aware that their police have a habit of murdering those among them perceived as being vulnerable because their government - at best - allows this to be covered over to continue and spread?

In America, when claims are made of a foreign government or police killing their own people, the US PTB likes to go there (at great MIC profit drained from the American public) to bomb the people, to kill the citizens there first and take their country's resources; they don't stop at taking out FB ads or opening Twitter accounts... different strokes, I suppose? **

One problem for the propagandists, beyond the obvious, is that virtually everybody else they're accusing of being the mindless puppets of someone other than themselves all knows personally that they themselves aren't and that therefore false accusations are being flung about. Causing said propagandists/Psychopaths That Be to go to great lengths to enforce censorship on truthtellers verifying their criminality at home and abroad. ***

Another problem is that they are again projecting what they do onto others they wish to attack in deflecting attention from themselves - while thereby drawing ridicule as well as even more negative attention to themselves, making the problems with the stolen and psychopathic-lunatic-run US government even more clear.

The insulting claim that the Poors are mindless puppets of the more wealthy and powerful and incapable of thinking for themselves, of recognizing the difference between right and wrong, or of objecting strongly to injustice which people independently recognize and abhor as being wrong or of actually caring about other people is so obviously encompassing their own issues that their sickness and human incapacities becomes even more evident than they were.

Their various behaviours and attacks upon others are more revealing of themselves than they're capable of realizing... ****

Julian Assange Has A Long List Of Warmongers Who Want Him Dead
The Jimmy Dore Show

Published on 5 Oct 2016
Julian Assange has a long list of high-powered enemies who want him dead, including Hillary Clinton and other prominent war-mongers who are angry that their secrets have been exposed.

The lives of the relative (non-billionaire) Poors are held as cheap by The Psychopaths and Parasites That Be; stopping the drain creating the Poors now - and increasingly - forming much of the population of The World's Wealthiest County Ever by further enriching and empowering those already having the most, generally via theft from the people and planet, would be 'too expensive' according to those PPTB, having that predominately stolen most and wanting it all.

The PPTB are destroying not only societies, civilization/democracy and economies but the planetary life-support system out of pathological greed and control-freakery.

Even just in monetary terms - the control of the PPTB is globally unaffordable for us all.

And they're killing us all. At best, incrementally.

This attack on black activists was bound to happen eventually. It started last year with Hillary and her claim that Putin was behind anti-fracking protests. The NYTimes published a straight piece about last year June or so that accused Putin of instigating anti-TPP opinions. It was clear from previous versions of McCarthyism that Russia would used to squash and marginalize any sort of dissent against the establishment. Putin was recently accused of being behind the Catalonia independence movement.

So basically white democrats are throwing black activists under the bus to further the Russia-gate narrative. Getting Trump through Russia accusations is more important than racial issues effecting their most loyal base.

This theme is reaching beyond TOP. It is reaching main stream credibility through articles like this in the Atlantic.

Also, found this. An article about a State department memo that listed out the Soviet propaganda they were spewing about race in 1963. Looking at what State thought was "propaganda" would hardly be questioned as untrue by current beliefs.

The democrats will end up shooting themselves in the foot with their largest most loyal base if they keep this shit up. Black establishment leadership will not be able to stem the resentment this will cause with younger black activists.

The best way to understand what has gone wrong with the Anglo world, and America in particular, is simply to think of it as a staggeringly ironic repeat of history. A few short decades ago, the Soviet Union fell, after thirty or so years of stagnation, which its complacent, pampered leaders, utterly divorced from lived reality, vociferously denied could ever be happening to begin with. That steadfast denial opened up the possibility of sudden collapse, and collapse it did: into authoritarianism, extreme inequality, superstition, cults of personality, tribalism, vendetta, violence, corruption, and kleptocracy. That is exactly what is happening to America, from the denial to the pampering to the sudden shock. Falling life expectancy, flat incomes, a shrinking middle class — short of war, or a giant meteor striking the earth, more severe indicators of collapse simply don’t exist...

There is very little point left in discussing the political economy, at least of the English-speaking world, only to say that the UK might yet escape what America cannot. America’s future, and those who follow in its footsteps, is very simple, very straighforward, and now almost inescapable. Like the Soviet Union, it is a fly caught in a web of stagnation, ideology, and perverse incentives. Thus, it is collapsing, and the end of that collapse resembles Russia: a tiny elite of cronies that control nominally privatized institutions, whether energy grids or healthcare, and jet off into the horizon, having used them as extractive mechanisms to siphon off the wealth of people who are trapped in social classes, dead end jobs, go nowhere lives, and those people then take their bitter frustration out on scapegoats, whom they have been zealously schooled to hate by the very people that laugh and thus doubly exploit them. All that, only with more guns.

Now, of course, just as after the fall of the Soviet Union, there will be bright spots. Just as Estonia is probably a nicer place to be than Russia, so New Zealand and Australia probably aren’t going to end up as badly off as America, which is going to be Moscow on the Potomac, more or less, if it already isn’t.

The global elite have decided to take their masks off and go all in. The author covers all the issues that have popped up since Trump became president. This isn't only happening here at home, but in many other countries.
Many countries have started adopting austerity measures and becoming as much as a police state as we are.

Greece was the ultimate austerity laboratory when boom, people were unable to access their money in banks. Other countries are playing around with going cashless and there is talk about installing palm scanners at train stations for people to pay for their tickets without having to use credit cards or use their smartphone apps.

Plus there's the continuous state of emergency because of the terrorists boogeyman, the rolling back of rights and labeling protests movements as extremists.

I'm hoping someone will like to do an essay on this article. It covers important things that are happening globally, not just here in der homeland.

The English-speaking world is the new Soviet Union.

The best way to understand what has gone wrong with the Anglo world, and America in particular, is simply to think of it as a staggeringly ironic repeat of history. A few short decades ago, the Soviet Union fell, after thirty or so years of stagnation, which its complacent, pampered leaders, utterly divorced from lived reality, vociferously denied could ever be happening to begin with. That steadfast denial opened up the possibility of sudden collapse, and collapse it did: into authoritarianism, extreme inequality, superstition, cults of personality, tribalism, vendetta, violence, corruption, and kleptocracy. That is exactly what is happening to America, from the denial to the pampering to the sudden shock. Falling life expectancy, flat incomes, a shrinking middle class — short of war, or a giant meteor striking the earth, more severe indicators of collapse simply don’t exist...

There is very little point left in discussing the political economy, at least of the English-speaking world, only to say that the UK might yet escape what America cannot. America’s future, and those who follow in its footsteps, is very simple, very straighforward, and now almost inescapable. Like the Soviet Union, it is a fly caught in a web of stagnation, ideology, and perverse incentives. Thus, it is collapsing, and the end of that collapse resembles Russia: a tiny elite of cronies that control nominally privatized institutions, whether energy grids or healthcare, and jet off into the horizon, having used them as extractive mechanisms to siphon off the wealth of people who are trapped in social classes, dead end jobs, go nowhere lives, and those people then take their bitter frustration out on scapegoats, whom they have been zealously schooled to hate by the very people that laugh and thus doubly exploit them. All that, only with more guns.

Now, of course, just as after the fall of the Soviet Union, there will be bright spots. Just as Estonia is probably a nicer place to be than Russia, so New Zealand and Australia probably aren’t going to end up as badly off as America, which is going to be Moscow on the Potomac, more or less, if it already isn’t.

Yet according to the political establishment, the presence in Germany of hundreds of thousands of persons from the Middle East whose identity cannot be verified — mostly young men — is Not A Problem.

No, the script the politicians and media are reading from insists that the biggest problem Germany faces is the presence of a few dozen newly elected right-wing populists in parliament.

“AfD bad” is the German equivalent of “Trump bad,” complete with rumors of Russian backing à la Russiagate puppies and Pokemon Go.

It’s obvious that the AfD only made gains as a protest vote — “It’s the immigration, stupid.”

Voters have explained this until they’re blue in the face.

Yet — except for a few isolated figures like the Green mayor of Tübingen Boris Palmer or Left party leader Sahra Wagenknecht — the entrenched political establishment refuses to hear it.

Instead, spearheaded by Social Democrat interior minister Heiko Maas, the establishment has decided to go with a pervasive public-private Internet censorship project, claiming the aim is to curb “fake news” and “hate speech.”

The global elite have decided to take their masks off and go all in. The author covers all the issues that have popped up since Trump became president. This isn't only happening here at home, but in many other countries.
Many countries have started adopting austerity measures and becoming as much as a police state as we are.

Greece was the ultimate austerity laboratory when boom, people were unable to access their money in banks. Other countries are playing around with going cashless and there is talk about installing palm scanners at train stations for people to pay for their tickets without having to use credit cards or use their smartphone apps.

Plus there's the continuous state of emergency because of the terrorists boogeyman, the rolling back of rights and labeling protests movements as extremists.

I'm hoping someone will like to do an essay on this article. It covers important things that are happening globally, not just here in der homeland.

Yet according to the political establishment, the presence in Germany of hundreds of thousands of persons from the Middle East whose identity cannot be verified — mostly young men — is Not A Problem.

No, the script the politicians and media are reading from insists that the biggest problem Germany faces is the presence of a few dozen newly elected right-wing populists in parliament.

“AfD bad” is the German equivalent of “Trump bad,” complete with rumors of Russian backing à la Russiagate puppies and Pokemon Go.

It’s obvious that the AfD only made gains as a protest vote — “It’s the immigration, stupid.”

Voters have explained this until they’re blue in the face.

Yet — except for a few isolated figures like the Green mayor of Tübingen Boris Palmer or Left party leader Sahra Wagenknecht — the entrenched political establishment refuses to hear it.

Instead, spearheaded by Social Democrat interior minister Heiko Maas, the establishment has decided to go with a pervasive public-private Internet censorship project, claiming the aim is to curb “fake news” and “hate speech.”

A new German law introducing state censorship on social media platforms came into effect on October 1, 2017. The new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the German state. Social media companies are obliged to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" such as libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint — regardless of whether or the content is accurate or not. Social media companies receive seven days for more complicated cases. If they fail to do so, the German government can fine them up to 50 million euros for failing to comply with the law.

This state censorship makes free speech subject to the arbitrary decisions of corporate entities that are likely to censor more than absolutely necessary, rather than risk a crushing fine. When employees of social media companies are appointed as the state's private thought police and given the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who shall be allowed to speak and what to say, and who shall be shut down, free speech becomes nothing more than a fairy tale. Or is that perhaps the point?

The paradox of this particular essay is that, while the German government is selling the law as a weapon against right-wing populism, this Gatestone writer claims it’s being used to shut down anti-Muslim, pro-Israel speech while continuing to give radical Islam a pass.

I don't see many people making use of this resource. I have to admit that I have not actively tracked it since 911. Any resource that is old enough to have a good track record should be cherished, used, and supported - as long as they haven't been hijacked/turned.

Are you able to comment on SW's quality, its independence, its board/officers?

#23.1.1.1
even neocons can get some things right sometimes. This article of theirs describes pretty fairly what’s wrong with the new law:

A new German law introducing state censorship on social media platforms came into effect on October 1, 2017. The new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the German state. Social media companies are obliged to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" such as libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint — regardless of whether or the content is accurate or not. Social media companies receive seven days for more complicated cases. If they fail to do so, the German government can fine them up to 50 million euros for failing to comply with the law.

This state censorship makes free speech subject to the arbitrary decisions of corporate entities that are likely to censor more than absolutely necessary, rather than risk a crushing fine. When employees of social media companies are appointed as the state's private thought police and given the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who shall be allowed to speak and what to say, and who shall be shut down, free speech becomes nothing more than a fairy tale. Or is that perhaps the point?

The paradox of this particular essay is that, while the German government is selling the law as a weapon against right-wing populism, this Gatestone writer claims it’s being used to shut down anti-Muslim, pro-Israel speech while continuing to give radical Islam a pass.

...libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint — regardless of whether or the content is accurate or not. ...

That's particularly interesting since voicing/printing facts cannot be considered libel/slander or defamation.

Went to get definitions (all emphasis mine) and right there on the search page:

Defamation
Defamation, calumny, vilification, or traducement is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation.
More at Wikipedia

Have the neos there altered the definitions to suit themselves, or are they simply lying in self-serving law again?

#23.1.1.1
even neocons can get some things right sometimes. This article of theirs describes pretty fairly what’s wrong with the new law:

A new German law introducing state censorship on social media platforms came into effect on October 1, 2017. The new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the German state. Social media companies are obliged to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" such as libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint — regardless of whether or the content is accurate or not. Social media companies receive seven days for more complicated cases. If they fail to do so, the German government can fine them up to 50 million euros for failing to comply with the law.

This state censorship makes free speech subject to the arbitrary decisions of corporate entities that are likely to censor more than absolutely necessary, rather than risk a crushing fine. When employees of social media companies are appointed as the state's private thought police and given the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who shall be allowed to speak and what to say, and who shall be shut down, free speech becomes nothing more than a fairy tale. Or is that perhaps the point?

The paradox of this particular essay is that, while the German government is selling the law as a weapon against right-wing populism, this Gatestone writer claims it’s being used to shut down anti-Muslim, pro-Israel speech while continuing to give radical Islam a pass.

Just when we thought we’ve seen everything from Bell Canada, the Internet and media conglomerate goes and pulls one of their dirtiest tricks to date.

They're trying to use closed-door NAFTA talks to sneak in a mandatory website blocking system and radical new copyright rules that would give an agency unprecedented power to dictate what you can and can't see online.1,2

The fourth round of negotiations is happening near D.C. as we speak and talks are heating up. U.S. trade representatives are tabling controversial topics, and Mexico and the U.S. are impatient to wrap up the deal.3 This represents a perfect opportunity for Bell to sneak in its radical copyright proposals behind closed doors without public scrutiny.

Bell's proposals are reckless and extreme, and would result in sweeping Internet censorship and criminalizing everyday online activities. But if we speak out now we can stop these outrageous proposals dead in their tracks.

This is an unprecedented move – we've never seen an Internet service provider in Canada have the nerve to call on government to take an active role in censoring the Internet before.

Canada's copyright rules should be shaped democratically by Canadians, not decided in closed-door trade talks. Plus, Bell – being both an Internet service and media content provider – already has a stranglehold over a huge part of our online experience. We cannot let them go any further!

That website blocking, like other censorship, will, of course be aimed at people like us and sites like this, at WikiLeaks, the Intercept and the like - and make the internet irrelevant, something existing only for for entertainment and the dissemination of official propaganda; pretty much leaves Youtube and Solitaire for people like myself, which is hardly worth the cost.

Well prior to this, (obviously, lol,) Koch-sucking Harper (whose top-down administration thought that Canadians had 'too many rights', impeding regression) had had a chat with Google, explaining that there were some mysterious things that Canadians ought not to see on the internet. Rather like China.

And prior to that, I'd noticed that far more information relating to industrial pollution/toxins and their effects - including once freely available studies and sites - vanished under Obama...

The lousy reception with frequent service interruptions appears to be related to the impoverished inner-city area to which we've moved; an internally nicely set-up house (looks like hell outside, probably as protective coloration) in which the owner - a nurse working in a local hospital - lived prior to moving out of the city, where we can have pets and smoke and which is much cheaper than the mortgage payment of the old house, but where I suspect the low-income internet customers aren't deemed to merit the expenditure required for decent wireless. We had the same provider and no such issues in suburbia... but I doubt that standards would be so low without such as NAFTA and 'harmonization' with the crappy 'protections' the American people had even previous to the 'trade deal' corporate give-aways.

Not using Bell, of course - and I have warned people previously against using them, knowing their reputation in the US.

And if they're doing that here, they'll be trying it there. I rather doubt that that's one of their own ideas, as I can't see how that would increase their profits; more likely to lose them a lot of business (I'd hope). I personally think it likely that it's been suggested that they demand this censorship through NAFTA, to establish a precedent and 'normalize' censorship.

Just when we thought we’ve seen everything from Bell Canada, the Internet and media conglomerate goes and pulls one of their dirtiest tricks to date.

They're trying to use closed-door NAFTA talks to sneak in a mandatory website blocking system and radical new copyright rules that would give an agency unprecedented power to dictate what you can and can't see online.1,2

The fourth round of negotiations is happening near D.C. as we speak and talks are heating up. U.S. trade representatives are tabling controversial topics, and Mexico and the U.S. are impatient to wrap up the deal.3 This represents a perfect opportunity for Bell to sneak in its radical copyright proposals behind closed doors without public scrutiny.

Bell's proposals are reckless and extreme, and would result in sweeping Internet censorship and criminalizing everyday online activities. But if we speak out now we can stop these outrageous proposals dead in their tracks.

This is an unprecedented move – we've never seen an Internet service provider in Canada have the nerve to call on government to take an active role in censoring the Internet before.

Canada's copyright rules should be shaped democratically by Canadians, not decided in closed-door trade talks. Plus, Bell – being both an Internet service and media content provider – already has a stranglehold over a huge part of our online experience. We cannot let them go any further!

That website blocking, like other censorship, will, of course be aimed at people like us and sites like this, at WikiLeaks, the Intercept and the like - and make the internet irrelevant, something existing only for for entertainment and the dissemination of official propaganda; pretty much leaves Youtube and Solitaire for people like myself, which is hardly worth the cost.

Well prior to this, (obviously, lol,) Koch-sucking Harper (whose top-down administration thought that Canadians had 'too many rights', impeding regression) had had a chat with Google, explaining that there were some mysterious things that Canadians ought not to see on the internet. Rather like China.

And prior to that, I'd noticed that far more information relating to industrial pollution/toxins and their effects - including once freely available studies and sites - vanished under Obama...

The lousy reception with frequent service interruptions appears to be related to the impoverished inner-city area to which we've moved; an internally nicely set-up house (looks like hell outside, probably as protective coloration) in which the owner - a nurse working in a local hospital - lived prior to moving out of the city, where we can have pets and smoke and which is much cheaper than the mortgage payment of the old house, but where I suspect the low-income internet customers aren't deemed to merit the expenditure required for decent wireless. We had the same provider and no such issues in suburbia... but I doubt that standards would be so low without such as NAFTA and 'harmonization' with the crappy 'protections' the American people had even previous to the 'trade deal' corporate give-aways.

Not using Bell, of course - and I have warned people previously against using them, knowing their reputation in the US.

And if they're doing that here, they'll be trying it there. I rather doubt that that's one of their own ideas, as I can't see how that would increase their profits; more likely to lose them a lot of business (I'd hope). I personally think it likely that it's been suggested that they demand this censorship through NAFTA, to establish a precedent and 'normalize' censorship.

The best way to understand what has gone wrong with the Anglo world, and America in particular, is simply to think of it as a staggeringly ironic repeat of history. A few short decades ago, the Soviet Union fell, after thirty or so years of stagnation, which its complacent, pampered leaders, utterly divorced from lived reality, vociferously denied could ever be happening to begin with. That steadfast denial opened up the possibility of sudden collapse, and collapse it did: into authoritarianism, extreme inequality, superstition, cults of personality, tribalism, vendetta, violence, corruption, and kleptocracy. That is exactly what is happening to America, from the denial to the pampering to the sudden shock. Falling life expectancy, flat incomes, a shrinking middle class — short of war, or a giant meteor striking the earth, more severe indicators of collapse simply don’t exist...

There is very little point left in discussing the political economy, at least of the English-speaking world, only to say that the UK might yet escape what America cannot. America’s future, and those who follow in its footsteps, is very simple, very straighforward, and now almost inescapable. Like the Soviet Union, it is a fly caught in a web of stagnation, ideology, and perverse incentives. Thus, it is collapsing, and the end of that collapse resembles Russia: a tiny elite of cronies that control nominally privatized institutions, whether energy grids or healthcare, and jet off into the horizon, having used them as extractive mechanisms to siphon off the wealth of people who are trapped in social classes, dead end jobs, go nowhere lives, and those people then take their bitter frustration out on scapegoats, whom they have been zealously schooled to hate by the very people that laugh and thus doubly exploit them. All that, only with more guns.

Now, of course, just as after the fall of the Soviet Union, there will be bright spots. Just as Estonia is probably a nicer place to be than Russia, so New Zealand and Australia probably aren’t going to end up as badly off as America, which is going to be Moscow on the Potomac, more or less, if it already isn’t.

for quite some time. His take is that, when the US crashes, its going to be a lot worse than when the USSR crashes - because Americans don't know how to do simple, life-sustaining tasks anymore. We have become totally dependent on big box stores, pre-prepared food, and automobiles.

When that shit isn't available or it becomes unaffordable, the bottom 80% of the population is staring at disaster.

Here's a link to a recent post on Orlov's blog. How many people have already done the things he suggests?

• If the electric grid collapses now and again, then you will eventually learn that you need to get yourself a 12V system, a generator, some solar panels, a wind generator, and install LED lights.

• If water pressure goes down to zero periodically, then you will learn that you need to put in some cisterns, a filtration system, a demand pump, and collect water off the rooftop.

• If garbage collection stops for periods of time, then you will learn to incinerate and to compost, and will try to minimize the amount of nonbiodegradable trash you generate.

• If paid work disappears for periods of time, then you will learn that you need to keep a few months' worth of savings around to ride out these periods.

• If stores run out of food on a semi-regular basis, then you will learn that you need to grow your own food, put a chicken coop in the back yard and figure out how many lazy beds of potatoes you need.

• If banks periodically confiscate all your money (that's called a “bail-in,” and it's actually been made legal not too long ago), then you will learn to keep an absolute minimum of money in the banks, and figure out other, more reliable forms in which to store your savings.

• If you were to periodically find yourself cut off from the medical system, then you would find out ways of staying healthy and of treating yourself.

• If you periodically found it impossible to buy gasoline, you would learn that you can't rely on your car, and would instead bicycle, or walk, or take public transportation.

• If your country's government periodically turned fascist and started detaining, torturing and killing people indiscriminately, then you'd learn that you need to get yourself a second passport, and practice getting out of the country in a hurry.

These are all examples of small, frequent collapses that are good for you.

@arendt
That's brilliant and would work for people who have more than enough money to scrape by on.

But isn't it now around 60% of the US population who now couldn't come up with $500 for an emergency and can't save money to potentially save their lives because they have barely enough - or not enough - to keep a crappy roof over their heads and eat. And aren't these numbers growing, with much worse anticipated as coming?

The car brakes go on the fritz. The refrigerator stops refrigerating. The dog gets his paws on a batch of chocolate chip cookies and earns himself a trip to the vet ER.

These are just three of any number of things that could go wrong during the course of the year. Recovering from any one will set you back about $500, which means these scenarios fall closer to the "undesirable inconvenience" category than they do the "massive calamity" one. And yet, nearly two-thirds of Americans do not have enough money in savings to cover the cost of a single one of these unplanned expenses. ...

That's from a Bankrate.com survey.

Bankrate
origin.bankrate.com
Bankrate, Inc. is a consumer financial services company based in New York City. Bankrate.com, perhaps its best-known brand, is a personal finance website.More at Wikipedia

I suspect that this likely involves people able to afford Internet/cell-phones/financial services and probably not those who can't? So there's probably another... possibly 20-30%??? of the population such surveys are missing. Just guessing, of course, but we've likely all seen it pointed out in studies that the bottom 20% of the American population actually stands at an economic negative.

A side-graph here, under 'Statistics', indicates that the bottom 40% of Americans stands at negative 1%, due to debt:

Distribution of net worth in the United States (2007).[18] The net wealth of many people in the lowest 20% is negative because of debt.[18] By 2014 the wealth gap deepened.
Top 1% (35%)
Next 4% (27%)
Next 5% (11%)
Next 10% (12%)
Upper Middle 20% (11%)
Middle 20% (4%)
Bottom 40% (*

The next economic crash that unbridled capitalism creates is going to be killing. Heavily so.

And one is expected quite shortly.

Edit: odd, might be my computer, but while the (the point of the post...) vanished after hitting Save? Is this just to ensure that I have my traditional edit even before noticing any typos? Like an old horse on a milk-round, the computer comes to anticipate the usual route back to 'edit', lol?

Re-editing because I think the symbol for *negative 1% is causing the number and bracket following to disappear, as it did so again in the above edit... and also, as is usual with me after more than one edit, removing the excess pile of addressees added with both edits, since I do this a lot and produce enough verbiage as it is. And if that still doesn't show...

And edited again as I somehow must have 'blued-out' the word 'vanished' which had vanished, I'm guessing with my above addition of the written out 'negative 1%', since it'd again failed to show.

Sigh... if I've missed anything else, I'll be busy worrying about approximately half of the US population starving in the streets, while their social safety net continues to instead swell the off-shored (and presumably safe from bankster seizures? Unless banksters there do the same, I suppose - which actually seems quite likely) bank accounts of the war-mongers raining bombs down on the heads of citizens in other countries with desirable resources or geopolitical positioning for total global dominance...

That'll be what those New Zealand bunker retreats are ready for, I expect - where the 'fat-cat long pig' gourmands are awaiting their tender, juicy arrival.

And edited again, to move the missing portion of the sentence down a line and away from directly following the negative symbol - which had actually removed the rest of that line once 'saved', and which seemed to work; at least it's working in 'view'... I iz the Edit Queen, even beyond Typos. I ownz the starz. First time evah that my edits have exceeded my post size... maybe.

Has anyone else had a problem with such symbols doing odd things to text following, or am I just lucky like that?

for quite some time. His take is that, when the US crashes, its going to be a lot worse than when the USSR crashes - because Americans don't know how to do simple, life-sustaining tasks anymore. We have become totally dependent on big box stores, pre-prepared food, and automobiles.

When that shit isn't available or it becomes unaffordable, the bottom 80% of the population is staring at disaster.

Here's a link to a recent post on Orlov's blog. How many people have already done the things he suggests?

• If the electric grid collapses now and again, then you will eventually learn that you need to get yourself a 12V system, a generator, some solar panels, a wind generator, and install LED lights.

• If water pressure goes down to zero periodically, then you will learn that you need to put in some cisterns, a filtration system, a demand pump, and collect water off the rooftop.

• If garbage collection stops for periods of time, then you will learn to incinerate and to compost, and will try to minimize the amount of nonbiodegradable trash you generate.

• If paid work disappears for periods of time, then you will learn that you need to keep a few months' worth of savings around to ride out these periods.

• If stores run out of food on a semi-regular basis, then you will learn that you need to grow your own food, put a chicken coop in the back yard and figure out how many lazy beds of potatoes you need.

• If banks periodically confiscate all your money (that's called a “bail-in,” and it's actually been made legal not too long ago), then you will learn to keep an absolute minimum of money in the banks, and figure out other, more reliable forms in which to store your savings.

• If you were to periodically find yourself cut off from the medical system, then you would find out ways of staying healthy and of treating yourself.

• If you periodically found it impossible to buy gasoline, you would learn that you can't rely on your car, and would instead bicycle, or walk, or take public transportation.

• If your country's government periodically turned fascist and started detaining, torturing and killing people indiscriminately, then you'd learn that you need to get yourself a second passport, and practice getting out of the country in a hurry.

These are all examples of small, frequent collapses that are good for you.

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0 users have voted.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@arendt
and the suggestions are absolutely sound. In the 1930s many could still 'go back to the farm'; now try to find a bit of clean soil in most any neighborhood, or any non-power tools and expertise with them.

for quite some time. His take is that, when the US crashes, its going to be a lot worse than when the USSR crashes - because Americans don't know how to do simple, life-sustaining tasks anymore. We have become totally dependent on big box stores, pre-prepared food, and automobiles.

When that shit isn't available or it becomes unaffordable, the bottom 80% of the population is staring at disaster.

Here's a link to a recent post on Orlov's blog. How many people have already done the things he suggests?

• If the electric grid collapses now and again, then you will eventually learn that you need to get yourself a 12V system, a generator, some solar panels, a wind generator, and install LED lights.

• If water pressure goes down to zero periodically, then you will learn that you need to put in some cisterns, a filtration system, a demand pump, and collect water off the rooftop.

• If garbage collection stops for periods of time, then you will learn to incinerate and to compost, and will try to minimize the amount of nonbiodegradable trash you generate.

• If paid work disappears for periods of time, then you will learn that you need to keep a few months' worth of savings around to ride out these periods.

• If stores run out of food on a semi-regular basis, then you will learn that you need to grow your own food, put a chicken coop in the back yard and figure out how many lazy beds of potatoes you need.

• If banks periodically confiscate all your money (that's called a “bail-in,” and it's actually been made legal not too long ago), then you will learn to keep an absolute minimum of money in the banks, and figure out other, more reliable forms in which to store your savings.

• If you were to periodically find yourself cut off from the medical system, then you would find out ways of staying healthy and of treating yourself.

• If you periodically found it impossible to buy gasoline, you would learn that you can't rely on your car, and would instead bicycle, or walk, or take public transportation.

• If your country's government periodically turned fascist and started detaining, torturing and killing people indiscriminately, then you'd learn that you need to get yourself a second passport, and practice getting out of the country in a hurry.

These are all examples of small, frequent collapses that are good for you.

doesn't mean Democratic anymore It means Dementia. The Dementia Party. Didn't watch the video but Hillary apparently claimed on Aussie TV that Putin's election meddling was worse than 9/11. Not watched because if she did say that .... that's brain-exploding.

doesn't mean Democratic anymore It means Dementia. The Dementia Party. Didn't watch the video but Hillary apparently claimed on Aussie TV that Putin's election meddling was worse than 9/11. Not watched because if she did say that .... that's brain-exploding.

You've nailed it! Who was that who recently posted quotes here about a Washington drug store exclusively for (Congress? Senate? both?) that did a brisk business in such as diabetes and dementia drugs, making those running the pharmacy wonder about involved decision-makers?

doesn't mean Democratic anymore It means Dementia. The Dementia Party. Didn't watch the video but Hillary apparently claimed on Aussie TV that Putin's election meddling was worse than 9/11. Not watched because if she did say that .... that's brain-exploding.

up

0 users have voted.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.